Electric Toyota Rav-4 Won't Be Sold To The Public (Update)

The Toyota Rav-4 is going electric in 2012, but you won't be able to buy one.

Update: Toyota has since clarified that the Rav-4 EV will indeed be sold to the public.

The second generation electric version of the Toyota Rav-4 will finally be reaching the masses with the 2012 edition. But not in the way you might think.

According to Pike Research, the EV truck won't be sold to the general public. Instead, Toyota will be focusing on business applications, such as fleets or car sharing programs. The news comes directly from Toyota's Geri Yoza, who explained that, with the Rav-4 EV, the company will only be focusing on "very strategic applications."

Last year Toyota announced a partnership with Tesla Motors that would see the two companies join forces to mass produce an EV version of the Rav-4, which would then go on sale in 2012.

For six years starting in 1997, Toyota sold approximately 1,484 units of the first generation EV Rav-4, of which around 700 are still in service including, famously, one owned by actor Tom Hanks.